Kristina Keneally is resigned to the notion that her obituary, to be published sometime way in the future, will start with this sentence: “The former Premier of NSW and the first woman to hold the office, Kristina Keneally, died today.”

But she hopes the next few sentences will contain these hitherto unknown details: she had a sense of humour, she was an engaging storyteller, and she had a journalist’s knack of getting people to reveal interesting insights into themselves. “I don’t want the rest of my life to be living under the shadow of that one title,” she says. “I’m proud of what I did as Premier, but it’s time to let other aspects of my personality emerge. I’d like to explore different ways of communicating.”

If I stayed as a feminist theologian in the Catholic church, I would be having the same conversation with the same 200 people for the rest of my life

That’s why she been making appearances in recent weeks in the Chaser team’s live show called The Empty Vessel at the Cleveland St Theatre, Redfern, and why on May 12 she’ll start co-hosting the Channel Ten morning show, Studio 10, as a stand-in for Ita Buttrose. Those are what she calls “baby steps” towards a new life as a media presenter.

The Premier look Photo: Nick Moir

“Ita’s role in the show does seem to be one of a guru and a sage, which is somewhat intimidating, but I’ll do my best to fill her significant footprint. I suppose I’ll have to be authoritative, but I’m going to have to be ambidextrous, because they’ll slide right from mandatory sentencing to the latest iPhone app craze that’s sweeping the nation. You need that ability to go from serious to light at a moment’s notice."

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Last week Keneally announced she was stepping down from her job as chief executive of Basketball Australia so she could spend more time with her teenage sons. Any new role she undertakes will have to accommodate her need to be at home for dinner with the boys and her husband Ben, who is Mayor of Botany Bay. It will also need to let her pursue her causes: the Stillbirth Foundation, poverty in the third world, reform of the Catholic church and reform of the Labor party. She admits she almost gave up on the last two in recent years.

“Here are the two institutions to whom I have given nearly every ounce of my physical, emotional and spiritual energy, and almost simultaneously they have displayed massive failures in living up to their highest ideals,” she says. “But I’m not going to disown either of them. I know at their core those values are still there. I know there are far more people in both institutions who are fundamentally good at heart than there are people who are failures or criminals.”

Carr crossed over Photo: Simon Schluter

Over her 45 years she’s become comfortable with dramatic career changes. The teenage Kristina Kerscher started as a student of journalism at a Catholic university in Ohio, then shifted to political science, then did postgraduate work in theology. She expected to become a university teacher, until “I realised if I stayed as a feminist theologian in the Catholic church, I would be having the same conversation with the same 200 people for the rest of my life.

"I didn’t want to spend 40 years writing academic articles in the hope that someday, some cardinal somewhere would wake up and say 'Yes, we should make women priests'. I wanted to have a more practical impact on people’s lives.”

She did that through Australian politics until she lost the 2011 state election to Barry O'Farrell. Some politicians would have retired to write their memoirs, but Keneally says: "I don't want to write a book -- I'm an extravert, I like to talk to people".

Abbott crossed over

Now many of her former colleagues will see her decision to work in television as crossing over to the enemy. She sees the transition as perfectly natural. The week with Studio 10 represents “an opportunity to learn from very experienced professionals”, to “put a toe in the water” and to have a little fun.

“Fun or funny are not words you’d associate with being a member of the NSW government. There are aspects of my personality that in many ways I had to suppress when I was in political life. I have a sense of humour that can find the funny things in even the most serious of circumstances, and quite frankly wisecracks and joke-making for a politician is very dangerous territory.

“Sometimes I’d be at a press conference and into my brain would come some smart alec comment which of course you have to suppress. But I’m not in politics any more and now I can do the sort of things that allow that side of my personality to emerge.

Goward crossed over Photo: Wolter Peeters

“One thing I loved about politics was that it was a way to use the media to communicate with people. For me, dealing with the media was a challenge and a place to experiment. You could be more dextrous depending on the medium you were working with. Facial expressions, voice modulation, a smile, a scowl, all communicate volumes.

"And an MP has to interview constituents to get them to tell their story. They have to be able to express empathy, create a bond of trust, and then get to the heart of what the matter is. It’s a skill that’s transferable.”

Turnbull crossed but keeps looking back Photo: Glen McCurtayne

Rob McKnight, Executive Producer of Studio 10, said: "Studio 10 is all about a smart, fun conversation and Kristina certainly fits the bill.It's a big call to sit in Ita's seat but I'm convinced our former Premier will bring her unique insight into the topics we discuss and her terrific sense of humour.I can't wait to see how she goes."

Keneally is amused at the notion that she’ll be accused of being one of those TV Blondes, apparently essential on any talk show. So will we ever see The Hairstyle again?

“When you’re in the public eye you have to define yourself, or someone else will do it for you,” she says. “Everything you do as a politician – your hair, the way you dress, how you laugh, what you say, all of that is scrutinised. It may or may not be fair, it may or may not be gender biased, but you have to accept that.

Richardson crossed the other way Photo: Jim Rice

“Maggie Thatcher said that she never changed her haircut because she knew if she did, people would be talking about the haircut and not about what she was saying. Unfortunately I found that even though I didn’t change my hair, people were still talking about it.

"That hairstyle said Kristina Keneally Premier. It was a deliberate decision to have my hair the way I had it, and when I was no longer Premier, it was a deliberate decision to change that.” So you could say that Kristina Kenneally’s transformation into a “media entity” is an opportunity to let her hair down -- in more ways than one.

Keneally starts her role on Studio Ten at 8.30am on Monday May 12.

Making the transition

Politicians and media people fight all the time, but the barrier between their professions is not so much a Berlin Wall as an English Channel. A brave few have crossed it before Kristina Keneally.

Bob Carr and Tony Abbott were both writers for The Bulletin before they found their true vocations. Another former Bulletin staffer, Malcolm Turnbull, has never been able to shake off his love for crafting a finely turned sentence, and writes articles as often as he can between signing documents as Minister for Communications.

Maxine McHugh and Pru Goward worked for ABC radio and television before they went to Canberra and Macquarie Street.

In the other direction, Former treasurer Peter Costello, former Opposition leader Mark Latham and former Defence Minister Peter Reith both went on to write thoughtful newspaper columns. And of course, Graham Richardson was ALP NSW secretary, a Senator and Minister for the Environment, Arts, Sport, Tourism and Territories before he began pontificating in print and fulminating on Foxtel.

The Tribal Mind column, by David Dale, appears in a printed form every Sunday in The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age and also as a director's cut on this website, where it welcomes your comments.

David Dale teaches communications at UTS, Sydney. He is the author of The Little Book of Australia - A snapshot of who we are (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark The Tribal Mind.